The fourth state of matter: Consciousness

Solid, liquid, gas, mind: it's all about how you arrange the atoms

By Max Tegmark

There are many types of liquid and many types of consciousness

(Image: Eric Flogny)

WHY are you conscious right now? Specifically, why are you having a subjective experience of reading these words, seeing colours and hearing sounds, while the inanimate objects around you presumably aren’t having any subjective experience at all?

Different people mean different things by “consciousness”, including awareness of environment or self. I am asking the more basic question of why you experience anything at all, which is the essence of what philosopher David Chalmers has coined “the hard problem” of consciousness.

A traditional answer to this problem is dualism – that living entities differ from inanimate ones because they contain some non-physical element such as an “anima” or “soul”. Support for dualism among scientists has gradually dwindled. To understand why, consider that your body is made up of about 1029 quarks and electrons, which as far

To continue reading this premium article, subscribe for unlimited access.